Prompting new poems for Red Wolf Journal

Month: October 2015

I happened to be happily embroiled in a novel where the main characters are poets, or poets wannabe. Boy am I in their element. I’ve just started reading. The setting currently is about how they met, at some Gatsby-like party, where one of the main character’s mother is chain-smoking and imbibing lots of liquor. I’m beginning to feel a bit drunk myself. Anyway onward to a new chapter of prompts. In case you’re new to this site, these prompts are meant to inspire you to write a poem and submit to Red Wolf Journal. Of course if you’re a poet, you write a lot of poems. Test it out on the journal if you like. We’re themed but really if your work is any good, it’ll fit anywhere. I’ll come up with six prompts per chapter so you can come back and check if I’ve added new prompts. Once I hit six, I start up a new post like this one. It’s continuous. Much like life.

Prompt 52: So folks, I took part in a flash mob today. This is pretty much an account of it. With some funky bits. I’m also acutely aware that I’m supposed to come up with a prompt. And it is to write about something funky. You’ll come up with something won’t you?

Prompt 53: Whaddaya know, another dreaming picture via via Magpie Tales. You’d recall the saying about how we’re all dreaming to be a butterfly as if the alternative isn’t true: the butterfly is dreaming us. So yea, a dream prompt.

Photo by Daniel Murtagh

Prompt 54: You know, when you sit down to write, thinking of something, and then you veer into a different direction, and you go, “shit.” I wanted to write something about Buddha. This came out. So guess what, something Buddha. That’s your prompt.
I also used three words from another prompt: nondescript, placid, quirky. Toil on, poets.

Prompt 55: There’s a bit of madness in an artist. When a strange, mad vision has gotten hold of, there’s sort of a violent reaction. She does look a bit strange, doesn’t she? So write a poem that’s slightly unhinged, revolting and generally bizarre. That image isn’t pleasing for an unknown reason.

Prompt 56: Hey there, in case you haven’t realized, I’m thinking of beauty. While being terribly unsightly, where is the beauty you ask? You know that divine beings come in disguise don’t you? Oh. The point being, you better start thinking about beauty because it’s the theme of Red Wolf Journal’s Winter 2015 issue. Please read the submission guidelines. You don’t even have to look beautiful to think about it. For inspiration, click on this link to photographs of people who live off the grid.

Time has relentlessly brought us to Fall 2015. You’re here because you read and write poetry. I like that it’s our common currency. We speak the same language. Hehe. We’re creative beings speaking the same language. We’re speaking the same language in the process of making art. We’re making art because we’re creative beings. And so there goes our kind of loop. If you’re just yearning to get creative, there’re these prompts. You can check back on earlier posts for other prompts too. These prompts are the kickstarters for you to make art and submit to the Red Wolf Journal. The deadline for the Fall 2015 issue is 25 October 2015.

Prompt 46: Thanks to Magpie Tales, we’ve got this dreaming surreal picture. I like surrealism as much as the cat. Life is pretty surreal when you think about it. It is also goddamn practical. But if life is meant to be so practical, doesn’t it fall short in accounting for the souls that we are? We are souls aren’t we? Souls are pretty surreal that’s for sure. That’s the reason we’re practicing art and that art claims us. You’d be practicing art if you wrote a poem in answer to this piece of art.

Art by Jacek Yerka

Prompt 47: This is another ekphrastic prompt. I wanted another one to end this series and I looked at another of Wyeth’s paintings. I’m kind of done with these though. That’s the thing with art. It never keeps still. It wants to transform. It repeats while transforming. It transforms while repeating. What does good art do? It is a transforming process. That’s what it does and is.

Andrew Wyeth, Airborne

Prompt 48: OK I’m changing tack. I’m kinda going with referencing. In your piece, reference a line of poetry. The line, “I’ve been eating poetry”, for instance. It is borrowed from Mark Strand’s “Eating Poetry”.

Prompt 49: Hey there, so we’ve got another piece of art via Magpie Tales (cue hand-clapping). You’d be interested in what an artist has to say about art, wouldn’t you? This is what George Tooker said, “I am after painting reality impressed on the mind so hard that it returns as a dream, but I’m not after painting dreams as such, or fantasy”. Once you’ve digested what he said, write.

George Tooker, Self Portrait

Prompt 50: It’s pretty dark outside. I can detect no burning scent. Although I’ve been told there’s a thick haze enveloping the city, I don’t see a thing. It’s fucking black. What do you see in Pollock’s painting? That’s what I’m interested to know. Apart from it being empirically black. Art prompt kindly provided by Magpie Tales.

Jackson Pollock, No. 8 Black Flowing

Prompt 51: Write a poem in which you had to climb a hill? I’m not much of a climber. But maybe one measure of age is whether you can climb still. I’ve never climbed a mountain. That’s one regret. Don’t think I ever will. Your poem can feature a mountain if you like. Just to amuse me.